Five Head-Scratching Recent Vinyl Record Misprints

Vinyl records have made a comeback in a big way. Over the last decade or so, the amount of people who are buying the analog format has grown exponentially. In 2016, vinyl was the only physical music format to increase in sales, rising 26% over the previous year. With this newfound popularity, more vinyl records are starting to be pressed. And with more items being pressed, there is always a chance that something might go wrong.

Misprints are highly uncommon, but they do happen. Usually if the test press doesn’t pass quality control, the album doesn’t get released and the plant starts over. But there have been a few instances where quality control wasn’t enough to catch a big mistake before the album hit shelves. There have been two instances in the past month alone that make you question whether someone was paying attention at all.

Depending on your point of view, misprints can be an interesting surprise or an unwanted nuisance. Either way, Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, is taking a look at five vinyl misprints that will leave you asking the question “how did that happen?”

1.       Beyoncé, ‘Lemonade’: Earlier this week, Beyoncé released the vinyl edition of her hit 2016 album ‘Lemonade.’ However, some European fans opened their copies up to find that the A side was not Beyonce’s album, but the A side to Canadian punk band Zex’s new album, ‘Uphill Battle.’ Columbia Records, who released the album, made a statement about the mishap, chalking it up to “human error” at the pressing plant and that neither artist was involved or knew of it. The label is offering to replace the misprint records, but according to an article in Vanity Fair, some fans don’t actually care, some even saying that they want the Zex album too.

2.       Queens of the Stone Age, ‘Villains’ / Gordi, ‘Reservoir’: Fans of Gordi got a surprise in August when their preordered record club copies of her debut album ‘Reservoir’ ended up containing three songs from Queens of the Stone Age’s new album, ‘Villains.’ The two albums had the same release date, so it is possible that the two albums were up for pressing at the same time. Jagjaguwar and Gordi both addressed the mishap, with Gordi joking that either her fans won’t notice it or they will “appreciate the dynamic shift.”

3.       Lana Del Rey, ‘Born to Die’:  Sometimes the problem isn’t necessarily with the pressing, but the labeling and packaging. People who thought they were buying Lana Del Rey’s 2012 album ‘Born to Die’ on vinyl in 2015 didn’t get a record by the artist at all. Instead, they got Wildhoney’s ‘Sleep Through It,’ in its entirety, with a Lana Del Rey label and packaging. The pressing was recalled, but there are some that are still floating around.

4.       N.E.R.D., ‘In Search Of’: When N.E.R.D. reissued ‘In Search Of’ in 2014, some of the copies have side A of Kid Cudi’s ‘Man on the Moon II’ on their A sides. The misprint doesn’t seem to have been officially acknowledged, but there is plenty of documentation of it on reddit and vinyl collective.

5.       U2, ‘Songs of Innocence’:  On Record Store Day 2015, U2 were set to release a physical version of their album ‘Songs of Innocence.’ However some fans in Europe got a reissue of Tool’s 1992 ‘Opiate’ EP inside the U2 packaging instead. Record Store Day UK acknowledged it as a misprint at the record plant, which was blamed on the packages looking too similar.

Vinyl misprints are inevitable. And as vinyl records surge in popularity once again, there is a higher likelihood that misprints will happen at some point. These are some of the most recent examples to hit the news in the last few years. Whether they, like some classic album misprints, become worth a lot of money remains to be seen.

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Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s top new independent record shop, is your outlet to find new, used and rare albums. We have thousands of titles in a variety of genres to choose from. Browse our wide selection of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs, memorabilia and more. Shop in store at our Plainview location, or check out our selection online at vinylbay777.com. With more titles being added to our collection all the time, you never know what you might find at Vinyl Bay 777.